mental health AIDS

Spring 2005 Newsletter

The Center for Community Health, Education & Research (CCHER), a nonprofit, community-based health and social services agency established in 1987, serves Greater Boston's large immigrant Haitian population from a homelike office setting in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Agency services include HIV case management, nutrition and meal delivery, housing search and advocacy, peer support, health education, and outpatient substance abuse treatment.

With funding from CMHS/SAMHSA, CCHER has opened the Alcide Center for Counseling & Family Services (ACCFS) to provide comprehensive and culturally competent mental health assessment, treatment, and consultation services to Haitian individuals and families who are living with HIV/AIDS. Housed at CCHER, the program offers an array of direct care services. These include diagnostic evaluations; crisis intervention; psychopharmacological assessment, intervention, and medication management; individual, couple, family, and group counseling; and community outreach and education.

CCHER's intervention model is holistic, focusing on cultural belief systems, attitudes, behaviors, and practices prevalent in the Haitian community. The model addresses stigmas about HIV/AIDS, mental illness, and mental health. Direct care services incorporate traditional models (e.g., cognitive behavior therapy) and nontraditional approaches, including spirituality and pastoral counseling, self-care, and stress management practices (e.g., relaxation, meditation, and cultural rituals). The model is flexible and focuses on meeting individual client needs. Services are provided in the home, hospital, clinic, and other community-based settings. Clinicians are fluent in Haitian Creole and so are able to offer linguistically appropriate mental health care to non-English-speaking Haitian clients.

The Principal Investigator/Project Director is Eustache Jean-Louis, MD, MPH; the Clinical Director is Gemima St. Louis, PhD. For more information, please call 617/265-0628 x213 or go to http://www.ccher.org.

– Compiled by the MHHSC Program Coordinating Center

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